Arthritis Research & Therapy (Sep 2020)

The multi-biomarker disease activity test for assessing response to treatment strategies using methotrexate with or without prednisone in the CAMERA-II trial

  • M. S. Jurgens,
  • M. Safy-Khan,
  • M. J. H. de Hair,
  • J. W. J. Bijlsma,
  • P. M. J. Welsing,
  • J. Tekstra,
  • F. P. J. G. Lafeber,
  • E. H. Sasso,
  • J. W. G. Jacobs,
  • on behalf of the Society for Rheumatology research Utrecht

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13075-020-02293-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract Objectives The CAMERA-II trial compared two tight-control, treat-to-target strategies, initiating methotrexate with prednisone (MTX+pred) or MTX with placebo (MTX+plac), in early RA-patients. The multi-biomarker disease activity (MBDA) blood test objectively measures RA disease activity with a score of 1–100. In CAMERA-II, response profiles of the MBDA score, its individual biomarkers, and DAS28 were assessed. Methods We evaluated 92 patients from CAMERA-II of whom clinical data and serum for MBDA testing at baseline and ≥ 1 time-point from months 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, or 12 were available. Changes (∆) from baseline for DAS28 and MBDA score and comparisons of ∆DAS28 and ∆MBDA score over time within the MTX+pred versus the MTX+plac strategy were tested for significance with t tests. Changes in biomarker concentration from baseline to months 1–5 were tested with Wilcoxon signed rank test and tested for difference between treatment arms by Mann-Whitney U test. Results MBDA and DAS28 showed similar response profiles, with gradual improvement over the first 6 months in the MTX+plac group, and in the MTX+pred group faster improvement during month 1, followed by gradual improvement. The 12 MBDA biomarkers could be grouped into 4 categories of response profiles, with significant responses for 4 biomarkers during the MTX+plac strategy and 9 biomarkers during the MTX+pred strategy. Conclusions MBDA tracked treatment response in CAMERA-II similarly to DAS28. More individual MBDA biomarkers tracked treatment response to MTX+pred than to MTX+plac. Four response profiles could be observed. Trial registration CAMERA-II International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number: ISRCTN 70365169 . Registered on 29 March 2006, retrospectively registered.

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